Episode 1242: Teams in Glass Houses
Date July 12, 2018 Summary Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about Manny Machado trade precedents, the Astros’ weird walk-off, the A’s as wild-card contenders, Trevor Bauer and an Indians bullpen miscommunication, the Rays’ proposed stadium design, a Mike Trout shirt, and more, then answer listener emails about players and self-preservation, midseason free agents, Mike Trout hobbies besides weather, constructing a star on the scouting scale, the likeliest best active players, baseball with multiple mound distances, tennis players as pitchers, and committing to the Waxahachie Swap, plus a Stat Blast about the shortest All-Star careers. Topics * Players putting their goals over a team * Hypothetical midseason free agents * Mike Trout's hobbies * Fewest career games for an All-Star * Building a player to make the majors * Best active players * Tennis players serving from the mound * Hypothetical multiple mound distances and bat types * Team that frequently Waxahachie Swaps Intro Alex Turner, "Glass in the Park" Outro Liam Gallagher, "Wall of Glass" Banter * Comps for a Manny Machado trade * Alex Bregman's infield walk-off reach on error * Are the Oakland Athletics wild-card contenders? * Tampa Bay Rays' new stadium proposal * Mike Trout shirt night promotion * Cleveland Indians' bullpen mix-up Email Questions * Sean: "Earlier this week you brought up the hypothetical Andrew Miller/Bryce Harper trade under the context of "what team says no first" to a rest of 2018 rental. Miller had the perceived advantage because of not only his but of the general history of relievers increased-utility in the playoffs (which was mentioned) compared to batters. Your debate leads me to this question, which is when, if ever, do you think we will see relievers--particularly players in the last year of their contract--refusing to be used like relievers like Miller have been used in the past in pursuit of a title. In another podcast this week you guys discussed how the NBA has made fans much more aware of what several of Ben's Ringer colleagues have discussed re LeBron as a post-team player, someone who values their own achievement more than that of any particular entity tied to a particular geographic location and how fans, generally, understand that it is part of the way the league operates now. Do you think that for the duration of your baseball fan lives players will always subjugate their personal health and financial goals for that of a team and the ability to say that you, as a player, "won the big one", or do you think we will see a point in time where relievers are taking themselves out of the game because they don't want to take on the additional risk of injury." * Josh: "I was thinking how different baseball would be if players could become free agents mid-season and how much it would be worth to have a typical trade deadline player for part of a season. Obviously, we see currently see this in trades, but I wanted to know how much money teams would spend if they could sign them rather than trade for them. I came up with the following scenario to give a setting for that discussion: Imagine if players could have an option in their contracts to allow them to opt out after the All Star break of the final season in their contract. They could immediately be free agents but could only sign a contract that would last for the rest of that season and postseason. At the conclusion of the season they would be normal free agents. I know this is very unrealistic and the logistics of implementing it would be convoluted, but for the sake of a good hypothetical let’s just assume this could be a thing. How much would/should a contender spend on a Machado or Harper level player for the last portion of the year? Would there be enough incentive for players to want to negotiate this kind of option in their contracts? What other interesting ways could this impact a team’s playoff run?" * Carter: First time emailer here, I am having a slow Friday night of MLB.TV baseball, listening to that wild Trevor Bauer interview, and mulling over the most persistent question of our era, why is Mike Trout so boring? I decided to take this upon myself to try to find something outside of baseball that Mike Trout enjoys besides weather, and my strategy to do this was to look for articles and bios posted on him from before he was drafted that maybe others have not found. What I found in roughly an hour of Googling was: fishing! And crabbing apparently, though I'm not entirely sure what that is? Despite (or in thanks to?) the hilarious irony of Mike "Trout" enjoying fishing, how could you leverage this new interest into a marketable strategy for MLB? Mike Trout sponsored fish sticks? Appearances at professional fishing events? Or is the last name thing so hokey that even this marketing strategy is dead in the water?" * Matt: "If you could create a player using 250 points to allocate on the 20-80 scouting scale, what do you think would be the most probable to make the Majors? Would you go 50s across the board and hope for an all-around average guy? Would a defense-first player fare better in the long run? Let me know what you guys think." * Todd: "Someone approaches you and says they're a time traveler from the year 2043. After you all exploit this person's knowledge of future events for gambling purposes, the visitor mentions that there is a consensus in 2043 about who the greatest baseball player of all time is. You're surprised when the visitor tells you that the player got major-league service time in 2018 and is not Mike Trout (or Willians Astudillo). The visitor gives you three guesses to identify this legend from among all players in the league -- plus those you expect to make their debuts later in 2018. Who are your three guesses and why?" * Jonny: "With Wimbledon in the middle of its final week of play, I have been watching a lot of tennis in the morning and a lot of baseball at night. I think the two have somehow melted together in my brain and gave me this idea. Some of these tennis players have ridiculous serve speeds, notably reaching between 110-120 MPH, with the fastest serve ever recorded at 136.7 MPH. So my question is this: How valuable would a tennis player be to an MLB team as a pitcher IF they could pitch by serving as they do in tennis. Note that this would have to come with the general inaccuracies of serving when compared to pitching, as well as the tennis ball lacking the same physical properties as a baseball; the trade off being, of course, that the ball is traveling 30+ MPH faster than the average MLB pitcher." * Cal (Los Angeles, CA): What if there were multiple mound distances to choose from, and each mound distance had its own corresponding bat size/shape? For example, when a pitcher pitched from a mound 5 feet closer to home plate a broader, paddle shaped or oar shaped, bat must be used. The bat size/shape makes it easier to make contact but this is counteracted by the shorter mound distance. Before each at bat the batter selects their preferred bat and the pitcher takes the appropriate rubber. There could also be another possibility of a third mound just in front of second base. In this case the bat used would be closer to broomstick size in its diameter (and would of course need to be made from a stronger material so it maintains its structural integrity). I'm not sure how the ball off of each of these new bats would react, but I assume each would effect exit velocity, launch angle, ground ball percentage, etc. It would be a matter of situational strategy when deciding which bat to use." * Luis:" What would happen if you ran your entire team based on the Waxahachie swap? That is, all of their pitchers work on their fielding, and all of their hitters work on pitching. Each pitcher works out at either a corner oufield spot or first base and reaches a 45 to 50 scouting score. All of your hitters learn to throw a knuckleball, in addition to whatever experience they may have had pitching as an amateur, and say half of them take to it and don't mind doing it. Let's assume all players happen to be very coachable, and the knuckleball, as demonstrated by Wakefield and Niekro, has very little impact on fatigue and arm health. So you could waxahachie-swap a guy in every time your starter has too stressful an inning or throws too many pitches or faces an unfavorable matchup in a dangerous situation without necessarily taking them out, and maybe they'd be healthier: fewer stressful innings without necessarily fewer overall innings. Maybe you don't face the meat of the order with the starter until the third time through, eliminating the effect. Your bullpen could be deployed with more flexibility, and they'd have the platoon split more often. How do you think this team would do compared to the same team run conventionally? Would you need a bigger bench to have more pinch-hitting options to make up for the pitchers' spots?" Stat Blast * Jeff uses the Play Index to look up historical All-Stars who have the fewest games played. * Frankie Zak has the fewest career games (123) for an All-Star. * Steve Delabar was an All Star with only 194.2 career innings pitched. Notes * The Rays new proposed stadium would only have a capacity of 30.842. Ben says the photo renders make it "looks like the Rays are just using a magnifying glass to burn their fans inside." * Trevor Bauer currently leads MLB in pitcher fWAR. * Matt's question was also asked in Episode 473. Ben and Jeff come up with very similar answers to what Ben and Sam said in that episode. They wanted to max contact and power and then minimum points for other tools. * Willians Astudillo almost came into a game the other night to catch. * Ben and Jeff first pick Juan Soto as the answer to Todd's question. * Jeff, on finding out the fastest serve speed ever, "That's artillery!" Links * Effectively Wild Episode 1242: Teams in Glass Houses * The Precedent for a Manny Machado Trade by Jeff Sullivan * 7/10/2018 Houston Astros walk-off video * Mike Trout T-shirt night promotion * Tampa Bay Rays Unveil Plans for New Stadium With Roof, Sliding Glass Walls by Jenna West * New Jersey Draft Hopeful Trout Living the Life by Joseph Santoliquito Category:Episodes Category:Email Episodes